Friday, December 16, 2005

Command agriculture in Zimbabwe

Bob Mugabe has realized that his people don't care how much he blames the West for food shortages, they simply want to be able to buy basic foodstuffs. In response, Mugabe has instituted a program called "command agriculture".

In an attempt to rescue his failing programme of land redistribution, Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe is trying to involve the army in a "command agriculture" programme.

"Instructions have already been passed onto battalion commanders," a Zimbabwean army major told the BBC.

Five years after Mr Mugabe ordered the seizure of the white-owned commercial farms, agricultural production has halved. [...]

Apparently he got the idea from China (the two nations have increasingly close ties) which made use of it in the past. They in turn got the idea from the USSR, who also used it in hard times--notably during the two great famines following attempts at collectivization.